After all the nerfs and buffs, we’ll talk about the last meta farming strategy in POE 3.24 and its consecutive buffs, Back to Basics Keystone with Divination card profit farming in T17 maps. This is both more profitable and more broken than Winged Scarab farming strategy using Harvest Sextant Modifiers.

In other words, it is a onetime investment. You must consume all but 1 item to save the rest. This strategy is another reason the prices of Mageblood and Tier 0 Uniques have dropped significantly.

Alternatively, this can also be tested in Standard League, as it does not require a specific Lantern mod. This must be run exclusively on any T17 map, as they drop more loot than any other map currently in the game.

This is because they have unique modifiers that significantly enhance pack size, item rarity, currency drops, map drops, and even scarab drops. So even if you run T17 map casually, you can still make a profit, or at least get back POE Currency you invested from the fragments of Uber map boss.

With Back to Basics Keystone in Atlas Tree, you don’t have to interact with any league mechanics or wait for any ghosts to touch monsters. All you need to do is enter, kill the monsters and the map’s ultimate boss.

Well, it’s that simple, isn’t it? No, that’s not right! It also requires a powerful build to run these packed maps for optimal efficiency in currency farming.

Which T17 Maps Should You Run?

The most important thing before throwing out Scarabs is to check every modifier on the map. Since you can only use Chaos Orbs to re-roll modifiers, you should double-check if there’s anything that might brick your build. Especially mods like these (blocks), and those where you need Juggernaut’s Unstoppable or Trickster’s One Step Ahead.

Ideally, you should try to roll at least 130% quantity, 50% pack size, and a 130% scarab modifier to get an efficient start.

But why is Ziggurat Map more expensive than all other T17s? Well, we can summarize the value of T17 map into 2 factors. One is their exclusive Divination card dropped, and the other is Uber fragment dropped by the map boss.

You can only get Samurai’s Eye Divination card from Ziggurat Map, and Artist only from Abomination Map.

The most valuable item that both Ziggurat and Uber bosses can drop in Abomination Maps is Reality Fragment, which opens a portal to Uber Maven fight and can drop Progenesis flask. If you’re farming this item in SSF, be prepared as it’s a hard task, but that’s how to get it.

The popular T17 maps that people prefer are Sanctuary and Fortress Maps. They have a much better layout and Divination cards they drop are well worth it. You can only get Succor of the Sinless Divination Card from Sanctuary Map, and you can only get Cheater and Dragon’s Heart from Fortress Map.

The cheapest T17 map currently available is Citadel Map, mostly because of its annoying layout. However, the bright side is that you can get Shieldbearer as well as Wealth and Power from Citadel Map. So besides Scarabs and Uber fragments, we can also farm these Divination cards here.

Scarabs

But in this strategy, since we have to use Divination Scarab of Curation, the cards we drop on Favored map will replace all of those Divination cards. This is mainly to expand the spectrum of Divination cards drops from both the ends.

The most important Divination Scarab of Curation for this strategy also gives you 12 times 10, which is 120% more Divination cards in the area. In other words, using this Scarab and this set of Favored maps, you can get more than twice the number of Divination cards.

Next is Horned Scarab of Preservation. If we use this Scarab, we only need to purchase it once. This prevents other Scarabs from being consumed while in use. So if our goal is to farm a higher spectrum of Divination cards, we also want to get guaranteed profits from larger stacks.

For our last option, we can use Horned Scarab of Bloodlines or Horned Scarab of Glittering.

Bloodlines Scarab turns all normal monsters into magic rarity, which directly grants more loot than normal monsters. If you’re running this strategy with non-Magic Find Builds, Glittering Scarab would be a better choice to fill in the loot gap.

But despite this, I still don’t recommend using Magic Find Builds on T17 maps because of the sheer difficulty and diminishing returns.

As the league progresses and the price of Mirror of Kalandra increases, the value of this strategy will increase. Apart from all of this, you don’t need any other mods on your map device.

Atlas Tree Setup

Unlike Valdo Maps, T17s get all the benefits of Atlas Tree you choose. But since we’re using Back to Basics Keystone, we don’t have to use any league mechanics in Atlas. This opens up wider space to invest in each node to scale the original drop of scarabs, maps, and the effect of map modifiers.

The league mechanics we’ve blocked here also prevent their scarabs from dropping. This allows you to get better quality drops from scarabs instead of trash ones.

Since Rogue’s Marker currently does not have any scarabs, this can be ignored. So our only investments are scarabs, maps, and the effects of map modifiers.

Back To Basics Keystone

Many people may ask why they should choose Back to Basics Keystone? Can’t we just go to Strongboxes?

Let’s say I roll 70% scarab multiplier on this map and my atlas produces a 90% effect. That’s 70 times 1.9, which is 133.

In our best-case scenario, if we get an 80% multiplier from Back to Basics, we can multiply that by 1.8, which is a 240% increase in the number of scarabs on the map. This will also multiply all other modifiers in our T17 map, such as more rare monsters, and item quantity, which is monsters drop more loot, along with monster pack size which is straight up even more density.

Currently, there is no league mechanic or any map that scales this multiplicatively except for Back to Basics on T17 map.

Profit

So, basically using this strategy, you are guaranteed to drop a lot of raw scarabs. The value of these scarabs ranges from a few Chaos Orbs to a few Divine Orbs.

But the biggest profit you can expect from a few map runs comes from Divination Cards, especially those worth one Mirror of Kalandra and Tier 0 Uniques. This is why Divination Scarab of Curation is the most expensive scarab available.

From the statistics I’ve gathered, the profit you get from scarabs is worth at least 1-2 Divines. This means that scarab isn’t the only reason it’s worth the trouble. Unless you can get top 5 most of the time.

Additionally, Uber map boss can drop 1 or 2 fragments. I personally get 2 fragments most of the time, but I’ve never seen a single boss drop more than 2. So depending on how many drops you get, it’s worth 0.5-2 Divines. So if you’re able to complete the map, you should be able to recoup your investment.

That’s the complete guide to this meta-farming strategy. Note that these strategies still work after all nerfs in POE 3.24. So give it a try!